Minnesota Sports Forum

There are some pretty interesting tidbits and someone asked Flip about Bennett and he said things.


http://grantland.com/the-triangle/qa-flip-saunders-on-building-the-baby-t-wolves-luck-and-mountain-dew/

Go wolves. Hard for me not to like Flip. He is a real straight shooter. Love that KG is already pumping the team up for the playoffs.

Great interview. Thanks for posting. It helps put the Miller signing in context. Flip clearly sees the playoffs within reach for the Wolves this upcoming season. Considering how well the team played last season before Ricky went down, I'd say that Flip's aspirations are within reason assuming Ricky stays healthy, and Wiggins picks up where he left off.

I'm not expecting anything from Pek, but I am expecting a significant positive on-court contribution from KG and a breakout season from LaVine or Shabazz (possibly both). I also expect improvement from Dieng and I would think that at least one of our other bigs -- Payne, Bennett, Towns or Bjelica -- will make a substantial positive contribution. Add Martin and Miller to the mix and you can see why Flip sees the playoffs within reach health permitting.

Something else I gleaned from the interview was the sense that Flip currently envisions Towns starting and playing alongside KG. That was apparent from Flip's response to the question about whether Towns is a center or PF. He talked about who KG might guard v. Who Towns might guard. Very interesting.

Not a KG guy as you know, but I loved his comment about coming to camp and being ready to compete for the playoffs.

I thought what Flip said about Bennett could indicate he hasn't made up his mind on him afterall but has sort of a wait and see approach which seems perfectly reasonable. It also struck me later that one reason he doesn't mention Bennett as much when talking to people is he tends to like to mention (in various spots I have heard/read) "bigs" that defend or have potential to defend "pick and roll situations" and I think Flip is talking about guys that are PF/C types and mentions KG Towns Payne and sometimes Dieng (everyone wants these type of guys that can defend outside of the painted area) and that doesn't include Bennett because he is a PF. I am not saying Bennett is in Flips plans because I think he is not sold on him but I think the idea he is absolutely gone is overstated. I think Flip still values Bennett to a certain degree.

Could Bennett still be moved? Yeah sure. I think Rudez is a guy that could be moved also and I think Flip values him to an extent also. The question is does he value someone else more. Rudez is cheap can shoot etc he seems like a guy another team might be interested in. Of course Rudez makes a lot of sense with passing PGs like Rubio and Miller and Bennett might work well as a pick and roll player with both guys as well. Pek coming off the bench with Miller able to feed him (and Martin or Lavine at SG) sounds really good to me. It's actually pretty easy to see why Miller would have interest in playing here. Either he will play with some vets or young athletes or in a perfect world both.

Good read and lots of insights from flip.

Was flip joking when he said cassel injured his hip when he did his big balls dance in game 7 vs the kings? Thats a wtf info right there. LOL

Very insightful article. Key quotes from Flip in my opinion:

On coaching: "I love developing players. As long as I have that passion, I'll continue doing it" - Boy, that sounds pretty open-ended to me.

On KG: "He's gonna start." - Not sure why anyone ever thought otherwise. Flip leaves no room for interpretation on that one.

On Pek starting: "Well, Pek is still hurt." - And that's all he says. Boy, that doesn't sound very good to me. If nothing else, LST should drop the notion of Pek starting.

On Towns:"....Some nights, Towns will guard power forwards and KG will guard centers. Some nights, it will be the other way around." - Again, no surprise here. We can expect a KG-Towns starting big man tandem.

On floor spacing: "And here's the big thing: Towns, KG, and [Adreian] Payne are not post-up bigs. They knock down 18-footers with regularity. So it's not like we'll have no spacing." - Oh, brother. Newsflash Flip: Modern NBA defenses WANT you to take those shots. They will let you have those all night long.

On the Post up game (or lack thereof) in the NBA these days: "The reason teams don't post up is that nobody can do it anymore. Teams would like to do it. The post-up is conducive to small ball. If a guy can score down there, the defense has to trap, and you can get open 3s. And that's what we're all trying to get -- open 3s." - Well, perhaps there is hope! On the other hand, there are plenty of teams that can generate wide open 3's with a killer pick and roll game. The idea that you must have an old fashioned inside out approach to generating open 3's is a myth.

There are some other good tidbits in there as well, but these were my key takeaways.

You nailed it Q. Those were my key take aways as well.

With regard to Bennett....I didn't read anything too positive for him. I mean....if I'm under contract/on the roster, I want my coach to say "He's part of the team and we're excited to have him in the mix at PF" instead of...."we're going to evaluate him over the summer but it's going to be competitive with all those guys..." Anyway - that's my interpretation.

Wish we would have got a little more on Nemanja Bjelica, but Flip's got it right. So much talent at the PF / SF positions that you just have to let them compete and bring out the best in each other.

worldK wrote:Good read and lots of insights from flip.

Was flip joking when he said cassel injured his hip when he did his big balls dance in game 7 vs the kings? Thats a wtf info right there. LOL

No, he wasn't kidding. Flip told me that story last year when I got the chance to have lunch with him.